The Traveller
by Jambammer
Summary: sequel to The Forever Angel: A strange boy appears aboard the Tardis, and the warning he brings could shatter the Doctor's life. :you don't need to have read the first to understand this, but it would help!:
1. Found Us Again

"So, where should we go, Gabey?" The Doctor asked cheerfully, smiling down at the baby looking back from the car seat strapped to the Tardis chairs. He had picked it up on his last trip to Earth as Gabriel had quickly outgrown the one he was given. "The universe is ours!"

Gabriel chattered back with a squeal, the only way that a four month old could. When his Dad smiled proudly, he grinned toothlessly back and waved his arms.

A bright light broke the moment, and the Doctor shielded his son's eyes with one hand and his own with the other. A silhouette of a young man stepped forward, coming into focus as the light faded.

"What is it with people getting on my Tardis lately?" The Doctor muttered to himself, and Gabriel giggled quietly as if understanding. "Who are you?" The Doctor demanded.

"I…I'm a traveller," the voice answered back unsteadily. A man about the age of twenty staggered forward, clutching his head.

"I'm a traveller too, but that doesn't explain how you got onto my Tardis--whoa whoa!" The Doctor leapt forward to catch the man in the midst of collapsing, The young, dark haired man was limp in his arms, but when the Doctor checked still retained a pulse, signalling to the Doctor that he had only passed out.

Gabriel squealed and propelled himself forwards, the restraints of the seat holding him firmly to the chair.

"Yes, Gabey," The Doctor answered, absolutely perplexed. "It would seem trouble has found us once again."

* * *

A/N: This is a shorter story, but a needed one :D


	2. Eilam

The Doctor stood at the controls of the Tardis, doing lost deep in thought. From the corner of his eye, he could see the young man slumped over in the seats and Gabriel slumped over in his car seat, both out cold. A smile twitched as his mouth. No matter how many times he had seen it, his Gabriel always looked so innocent and adorable when he slept, and it was a sight the Doctor was sure he'd never tire of. He certainly hadn't with his other children while they were growing up.

He sighed to himself, trying to suppress the old aches the thought of his other children brought. At times, he'd find himself wishing they could meet their little brother. Once, he almost took Gabriel to Galifrey during a time they would have been alive. Sometimes, watching the wispy haired baby sleep as he was now, he'd see their faces instead.

Some wounds just didn't heal, ever. But, that couldn't keep him from the events happening around him. At least now with Gabriel, he wasn't alone anymore. If he had his way, he'd never be alone again.

The material of the seats squeaked and alerted the Doctor to the sight of the mysterious traveller pushing himself into a sitting position, looking around blearily.

"Ah, waking up now, are you?" The Doctor asked his visitor cheerily. He had checked the young man and had found no weapons of any sort, so he had no reason to treat him as a threat. Not yet anyways.

"Where am I?" His groggy voice answered.

The Doctor smiled. "First things first. What's your name?"

His guest's eye's darkened with hesitation. "…Eilam."

"Really?" The Doctor grinned brightly. "That's his middle name," he told his guest proudly, gesturing to the still sleeping infant. The young man, not much more then a boy noted that the Doctor had the look in his eyes that only a father could have. It made him dread his mission even more. "It means forever."

"Yeah, that's why my mother picked it," Eilam managed a small, yet awkward laugh. "Small… small universe, yeah?"

"Yeah, oh yeah," The Doctor agreed. "Now then, mind telling me what you're doing on my… ship?"

"Ship?" The man echoed.

He always had hated explaining the Tardis; it had become so tedious. "Space… ship… it's called a Tardis. It means…"

"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," Eilam filled in along with the Doctor.

The Doctor's eyes widened, and he looked at the man before him curiously. "How did you know?"

"I'm familiar with Galifrean technology," Eilam answered simply, looking about the Tardis. "I'm sorry, but you are…"

"OH, right I suppose that would be in order. Hello, I'm the Doctor," he extended his hand, which Eilam took. "Are you…" The Doctor hesitated a moment, studying the boy before continuing with his hunch. "Are you a Time Lord?"

He ruffled his own hair, still trying to soak it all in. "Partly, yeah. My Dad was a full time Lord, but I'm not sure of my mother's lineage. Of all the Tardises throughout time…"

The Doctor crossed his arms and shot a quick look at his son. The infant was still lost in the infinite world of dreams. "What do you mean by that?"

Eilam paled, but then grinned somewhat. "I… that is… well…You're a bit of a legend, Doctor. Where I'm from….uh… everyone knows who you are. Everyone's dying to meet you. It's an honour to even be standing here with you."

"Well, I suppose I am really quite wonderful," the Doctor said with mock arrogance, looking around his Tardis with pride. "But I'm nothing special. Well, not all that special I suppose." When he looked back to the young man's face, he saw that the eyes of admiration had been turned to someone else. "His name is Gabriel. Gabriel Eilam." It was easy to tell from the Doctor's tone what the only thing was that he loved and valued more then the Tardis.

"How old is he?" Eilam asked, unable to remove his eyes from the infant's tiny face, his own expression overcome with a strange fascination.

"Nearly five months, going by the Earth calendar. I'm hoping his eye colour will come in soon, if it comes in. I was rather hoping he'd get my eyes…" He trailed off, looking at the baby. "How old would you be?" The Doctor asked, wondering if the dark haired man was as young as he looked. With Time Lords, you could never truly tell. For all the Doctor knew, the traveller could have been older than he.

"If we're going by Earth years, then twenty three," Eilam answered. The Doctor nodded. He had been close when he guessed twenty. Eilam was still a child, at least in his eyes.

"So why are you…" The Doctor was unable to finish his sentence as the Tardis lights fluctuated. Both sets of grown Time Lord eyes ran to the walls and top of the Tardis, their minds already processing what could be wrong.

Another fluctuation followed, along with a violent shake.

"That's not good," the Doctor muttered to himself, grabbing a hold of the controls as Eilam jumped to his feet to help. Another quake promptly sent him down to the floor.

As hard as the Doctor tried, pressing all sorts of buttons and switches, he couldn't stabilize the ship.

It tilted sharply to the left, tossing the only person aboard not holding on to something or strapped down into the far wall. Gabriel squealed and waved his arms about, having been awakened by one of the jolts.

"He's not scared?" Eilam asked, grabbing onto the nearest structure and holding on for dear life. "I'm bloody terrified!"


	3. It's Now Time

"He's used to it!" The Doctor yelled back, trying to calibrate and steady the ever rocking ship.

"This happens often, does it?" Eilam shouted back in disbelief, trying to find a way back to the controls.

"More then I'd like!" The Doctor answered, wishing he didn't have to yell to be heard. Why couldn't the silly boy get back to the controls any faster?

"They never mentioned this in any of the legends!" Eilam yelled, staggering a little bit closer.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. Now was really not the time. "Yeah well don't believe everything you hear! And stop yelling!"

"Why?"

The Doctor didn't need to answer. A baby's wail did.

"He hates people arguing or yelling!" The Doctor answered, caught somewhere between protective parent, annoyed anger and the frustration of not knowing what was going on with his ship. "It scares him!"

Flinging himself forwards, Eilam made an attempt to grab for the control panel. He missed, but landed close enough to raise himself up while the Doctor looked anxiously between the controls and his son.

"Would you mind sitting with him and talking softly, maybe playing with his hands as well? It distracts him," The Doctor asked, feeling torn. He'd rather have been with Gabriel, but if he didn't figure out what was going on, they could all die. "He'll calm down quickly, he always does!"

Eilam bit his lip in hesitation. "You go to him, I'll work on the Tardis," he said quickly. "He'd rather have you."

There wasn't time to argue. "Are you sure you know how to work the Tardis?"

"Yes." There wasn't a shred of doubt in Eilam's voice, so the Doctor nodded and managed to fall into the seats beside Gabriel.

"Set the coordinates to take us down to Earth's surface, preferably London," The Doctor instructed before turning his attention elsewhere. Gripping the rail firmly with one hand, he spoke gently to his son to attempt to calm the baby down. "It's okay Gabey," he murmured, stroking the baby's head. Until they were on solid ground, he dared not take Gabriel out.

Eilam looked at the controls nervously. He had used a Tardis before, this one even, only the controls were different. Some levers had been replaced, or would be replaced by the time he first would use them, other buttons had been removed or changed. Lifting his eyes, he saw that the Doctor wasn't paying any attention to him. Trusting his own instinct, Eilam turned a few things and yanked down a lever, hoping it worked.

It did, and both men sighed in relief when the shaking stopped and the lights returned to normal.

The Doctor unstrapped the car seat and lifted Gabriel into his arms. Eilam smiled softly as he watched as the baby nuzzled into his father and was asleep nearly at once.

"So what do we do now?" Eilam asked softly, mindful of the dozing infant.

The Doctor sighed. "Now… now we wait until after nap time, then we find out where we are and what happened." Getting to his feet carefully, the Doctor shifted his son in his arms and motioned for Eilam to follow. "His bed's this way."

Truthfully, he knew the way, but Eilam kept silent as he followed. It was weird to him to see the Tardis this way. It wasn't this design in his time. Granted, in his time he had made a few changes of his own to the design. The Tardis belonged to him in his time after all.

Well, to him and his father, but he flew it more often. His father often got into these weird moods, saying that flying the Tardis brought back a lot of painful memories. Whenever he asked about them, Eilam was often told to go out on a nice trip, and to bring him back something, like a bright blue fruit from 30th century Earth, or an apple from 12th century. That had been where he was going when this happened. His best guess would be that the two Tardis' had collided in time, and were temporarily fused. Wouldn't be the first time it had happened, but usually he met an older or slightly younger version of himself, not… him…

Running into him meant it was time, just as his father had warned him about for years.

"Eilam!"

"Huh?" He jerked his head up, realizing he hadn't been paying attention to anything but his thoughts.

"I thought I had lost you," the Doctor laughed. "Now come, I want to talk to you more."

Eilam blinked, noticing the Doctor's empty arms. "Where's Gabriel?"

"In his bed, sleeping like… well… a baby," The Doctor replied, giving his guest a curious look. "I just put him down. You were with me."

Eilam blinked. "I was? Sorry, I must have zoned out. I have a lot on my mind."

The Doctor's expression was hard to read. "I'm sure."


	4. You're Going To Lose Him

Back by the controls of the Tardis, the Doctor's smile left and he took on a grave expression. "Eilam, we have a situation as you know. When were you planning on telling me this was a paradox?"

The young man's face reddened. "I… how…"

"Our Tardis's have merged. I figured that out early on and managed to delay the consequences. You were careful not to touch Gabriel for fear of creating what you've already done," the Doctor crossed his arms and stared hard at the guest on his ship. "Eilam… or should I say Gabriel?"

"No!" Eilam shook his head wildly. "No, I'm not Gabriel. But… you're right. Our Tardis's are the same. I couldn't touch him because… I… know of him."

"I have to separate the two, Eilam, you'd better be ready to leave," The Doctor said hurriedly as the lights flashed again. It wasn't holding. Luckily, his son would sleep through this. "Who are you?"

"Just another who," Eilam answered softly with a bit of a smile. "But I have a message for you." He caught his hands beginning to fade, and a moment of panic overtook him. He couldn't blow this. "You're going to lose him."

The Doctor paled. "What?"

"Gabriel," Eilam insisted. "You're going to lose him. Goodbye, Doctor."

"Eilam! What do you mean?" The Doctor called out, but it was to the emptiness of his own ship.

* * *

A/N: It is done! Tomorrow I'm off for ten days, SO FAREWELL ALL :D When I get back, we'll get the next story in the series underway, yes? Stay tuned for The Separation Prophecy!


End file.
